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Asus Xonar DX PCI-E

Sound Card

The Asus Xonar DX is powered by Dolby Home Theater technologies for incredible audio clarity. It supports 7.1 channel analog output as well as mic and line-level inputs, and has connectors to hook up to the front audio ports on most cases.

The main advantage of using a dedicated sound card like the Xonar DX is improved audio clarity. This card delivers much cleaner audio quality (116dB SNR) compared to most motherboard based solutions. It also has very basic EAX and Direct Sound support under Windows, though it is not specifically built to be a gaming audio card.

It is worth noting that Asus does *NOT* list ASIO supported drivers for this sound card. So if you are using software that requires a sound card with ASIO support, it would be advisable to choose a different sound card.

John D. (Senior Production Technician) Says:This is a decent, functional sound card. That said, given the lack of advanced features, I would seriously consider just using the motherboard's built-in audio chip, as those are generally of pretty good quality these days. Where I would recommend this card is if you need audio output on a server board that lacks a built-in audio controller.

Christopher Crader (Customer Support) Says:

I have this sound card at home - it's an excellent piece of hardware for a good, standard audio solution. Unfortunately, I've seen issues with some of its higher level EAX emulation, but its base EAX and EAX 2.0 support is good.

One bit of annoyance is that the Asus Xonar Control Panel software that comes with this card is a little odd to get around. The biggest issue I see is that it doesn't auto-switch between front and rear audio ports. As such, you have to go into the control panel and switch to the slightly cryptic "FP Audio" output to get the front panel audio to work.